SAY Property Consultants
Associate Director - Rental Living
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SAY Property Consultants is an award-winning consultancy providing strategic operational advice and asset management support across the residential sector. Our Rental Living team works with investors, developers, and operators across Build to Rent, Co-living, Single-family housing, and PBSA.
The Role
We are looking for an experienced and commercially minded Associate Director to join our Rental Living team. As a senior member of the team, they will lead and oversee client relationships as well as consultancy and asset management instructions, taking responsibility for the quality, commercial performance, and successful delivery of projects.
The successful candidate will combine strong residential operational knowledge and commercial awareness with excellent leadership, analytical, communication, and project management skills. They will provide strategic advice to senior stakeholders, translating market, operational, and financial evidence into clear recommendations across the Rental Living lifecycle.
They will play an active role in the management and development of the Rental Living team, including line management, mentoring, and quality assurance, while helping to maintain high standards across the team's work.
The role will also have a significant focus on business development, developing existing and new client relationships, identifying opportunities for new instructions and services, and strengthening SAY's profile within the Rental Living sector.
Key Responsibilities
Client Relationship Management
- Own and manage key client relationships at a senior level, acting as a trusted advisor and maintaining strong relationships beyond individual instructions.
- Lead day-to-day contact with clients, managing meetings and interactions, ensuring clients are proactively informed throughout instruction.
- Present findings, recommendations, and strategic advice confidently to client teams and senior stakeholders.
- Take ownership of client actions, queries, and follow-up, escalating matters internally where appropriate.
- Identify and develop opportunities for SAY to provide additional services, working with colleagues to convert opportunities into new instructions.
- Take ownership of significant client issues and decisions, escalating internally where appropriate.
Project Delivery and Management
- Lead consultancy and asset management projects from inception to completion, taking responsibility for scope, programme, quality, budget, and client delivery.
- Chair client and project meetings, coordinate internal and external project teams, resolve issues, and maintain momentum across deliverables.
- Lead and manage internal and external project teams, delegating effectively, coordinating resources, and ensuring clear accountability for delivery.
- Chair senior client and project meetings, resolving issues and maintaining momentum across projects and deliverables.
- Produce, oversee, and review complex reports, strategies, budgets, and recommendations, ensuring outputs are accurate, consistent, commercially focused, and client-ready.
- Set and maintain high standards for project delivery, providing quality assurance and constructive feedback on work produced by colleagues.
- Monitor project fees, resourcing, time recording, invoicing, efficiency, and profitability, taking action where required to maintain strong commercial performance.
- Identify opportunities to improve project delivery, processes, templates, and ways of working across the team.
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Rental Living Advisory
- Provide strategic and operational advice across the Rental Living lifecycle, including market positioning, due diligence, design for management, operational set-up, mobilisation, and ongoing asset management.
- Lead and oversee market research and benchmarking, interpreting rental, competitor, customer, and operational data to form evidence-based recommendations.
- Lead and review and develop operational expenditure and service charge budgets, operating models, staffing structures, management strategies, KPIs, and business plans.
- Lead or support operator, managing agent, and supplier procurement exercises, including tender documentation, evaluation, interviews, and recommendations.
- Take ownership of asset management instructions, working between the investor/client and operator to review operational and financial performance, challenge performance where required, agree actions, and drive delivery against agreed business plan objectives and KPIs.
- Review operational processes, management performance, and asset performance, identifying opportunities to improve leasing, customer experience, efficiency, and financial performance.
- Advise on amenity provision, operational design, resident experience, and service standards, drawing on market evidence and sector best practice.
- Act as a senior internal point of expertise within Rental Living, supporting colleagues on complex operational and strategic matters.
- Contribute to the development of SAY's methodologies, benchmarking, intellectual capital, and approach to Rental Living advisory services.
Business Development and Profile
- Lead and contribute to the Rental Living team's business development objectives, taking ownership of proposals, pitches, and new business opportunities.
- Develop relationships with prospective clients and maintain strong relationships with existing clients, proactively identifying opportunities for new instructions.
- Lead the preparation and presentation of proposals and pitch materials and play a senior role in new business meetings.
- Identify opportunities to cross-sell SAY and hereSAY services and work with colleagues to convert opportunities into instructions.
- Identify, develop, and support the implementation of new services and products in response to changing client requirements, market trends, and opportunities.
- Maintain a strong understanding of market activity, legislation, innovation, and emerging trends across Rental Living and use this knowledge to identify opportunities for SAY and its clients.
- Develop and maintain a strong external industry profile, representing SAY at industry events and building relationships with relevant industry bodies, clients, and sector networks.
- Lead and contribute to thought leadership, research, and other initiatives that strengthen SAY's profile and market position.
- Support colleagues in developing their own industry knowledge, networks, and external profiles.
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Team and Internal Contribution
- Support the development of team members, setting objectives, providing regular feedback, and supporting individual career and professional development.
- Provide leadership, coaching, and mentoring to junior colleagues, helping them develop their technical, commercial, and client-facing capabilities.
- Delegate work effectively, providing appropriate direction and oversight while supporting colleagues to take greater ownership and responsibility.
- Support recruitment, onboarding, and training activities, including identifying resource and capability requirements, reviewing candidates, and participating in interviews.
- Lead internal projects and business improvement initiatives where appropriate.
- Develop and maintain project templates, methodologies, processes, and quality standards that support consistent and efficient project delivery.
- Help establish and maintain high standards of work and ways of working across the team.
- Work collaboratively across SAY and hereSAY, sharing knowledge, supporting cross-disciplinary working, and contributing to the wider objectives of the business.
Skills and Experience
- Experience within the residential property sector, ideally including Build to Rent or another Rental Living sector.
- Strong understanding of residential operations and the commercial drivers of professionally managed rental assets.
- Experience leading projects or workstreams and managing client relationships with a high degree of independence.
- Ability to analyse complex information and translate it into clear, practical, and commercially focused advice.
- Excellent written communication and report-writing skills, with strong attention to detail and the ability to produce client-ready work.
- Strong commercial awareness, including experience managing project scope, fees, resourcing, efficiency, and profitability.
- Confident and credible presenter and communicator, comfortable chairing senior meetings and challenging constructively where required.
- Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage competing deadlines and priorities.
- Competent Excel and Microsoft Office skills; experience of operational budgets, benchmarking, or financial analysis is advantageous.
- A collaborative leadership style and willingness to contribute to the development of the wider SAY business.
- Strong sector knowledge and an ability to develop and maintain an industry network and external profile.
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